A family-owned company, Holy Gems, said it brought Torah verses to life after the Israeli government certified it as the first to discover precious gems in the Holy Land.
Avraham “Avi” Taub, joined the family business after serving in the Israel Defense Forces during the 1973 Yom Kippur war. After becoming observant, Avi heard the Rebbe tell the mayor of Haifa in 1988 where precious stones were within the northern Israel city. “The uniqueness of Haifa is that it has a sea, and it has a valley, and in the valley, there are precious stones and gems,” the Rebbe said.
Avi took the Rebbe at his word and launched a company to search for the gems, despite scientists and experts telling him gems were unlikely to exist that region.
“Everybody thought he went crazy,” Tali Shalem-Taub (Holy Gems CEO and daughter of Avi) said. “He lost a lot of his credibility, he lost a lot of his money, he lost a lost of his so-called friends.”
But her father remained determined. The gems and minerals mined so far include natural moissanite, sapphire, ruby, garnet, hibonite, spinel, ilmenite, zircon, rutile and even diamonds.
“... I will lay your foundations with sapphires and I will make your windows of jasper and your gates of carbuncle stones, and all your border of precious stones” (Isaiah 54:11-12), the verse reads.
“It is a promise of G-d to Israel,” Shalem-Taub said. “Why nobody ever tried to find them before, I don’t know, but it’s true.”
adapted from COLlive & Fox News
